How to Sell Advice

Your job as a marketer is to grow your clients' business so you can actually get results.It doesn't matter how good you are at the tactics, if you don't know exactly who buys your clients' products and services and why, you won't get the best possible results.When I work with a client, I often spend a lot of time up front doing research. Things like researching the industry and the competitive landscape. But most importantly, I spend as much time as I can understanding the kind of people who buy the products or services and why. I do this by interviewing their best customers (in some cases),  running very short surveys, and analyzing the emotional and logical reasons people buy.Yours,—kP.S.  I recorded this quick audio while walking outside. The audio isn't great, but I hope the kernel of the idea is enough to make it worthwhile to listen to. I'm not sure if I'll always publish audio like this while I'm out and about. I realize it can bug people to listen to low-ish quality audio.But in this case, I figured it's better to share in case you get value out of it. What do you think?

If you're like most freelancers and consultants, you run your sales process much like a typical scoping project.You try to figure out what the client wants you to do and you then nail down what the scope will be. But that's a problem. The clients aren't actually hiring you because of what you can do. They're hiring you because of where you can take them.If you go back to the earlier post, "How to sell advisory services", you'll recall that the first part of my advisory value proposition is transformation. You're bringing a client from point A to point B.When you focus on understanding, articulating, and scoping around the desired end state, then you have a much more consultative and effective approach to the sales, scope, and delivery of your project.It's like magic. Suddenly you're not talking about deliverables, you're talking about outcomes. And that gets people excited.Try it and let me know what you think. Stick a post-it note to your computer if you have to that says, "FOCUS ON THE GOALS" before your next phone call.Everyone will get a better outcome when you do that. Especially if you keep the goal in mind throughout the engagement.Yours,—k

Michelle asked a great question that I think applies to most people in this group.She asked:“Do I need to know the ins and outs of PPC advertising or can i get away with knowing when and how to figure out if it's the best marketing strategy for my client? I'm a big hands on learner person. I love learning all I can. Thoughts?”My answer? No. You shouldn't (and can't) learn everything about everything. Like she suggested, you do need to know when it's the right strategy for your client.Generally, you want to go deep on one thing and be competent in the rest. A T-shaped marketer (because you go deep on one thing and have broad knowledge of a wide range of things). But you do need to know how to pull it together and where it fits into the overall marketing strategy so you can get business results. That's what you're hired for, after all. Yours,—k

The secret sauce to advising your clients is to act as if they were your own family.Here's how I approach my work and how you can do the same, even if you're just getting started in a strategy role. Yours,—k

I had a good question from Taylor, who does content marketing and copywriting. He asks :When I was in the PR world, I understood exactly the relationship between myself, the ad agencies, the media buyers, etc. And even though there was some (aka a ton) of overlap and grey area, I understood how to approach it as far as which aspects should really be handled by me even though the others technically had the capabilities to do it. And I understood how to craft a strategy that encompassed all of us and how we all fit together.I feel like doing the "content" side of things, I don't have that same understanding of exactly where/how I fit into the mix of existing marketing partners, if you know what I mean. So, I gotta learn a lot of that through research etc. but any wisdom you have woujld be helpful too!Well, Taylor, I have some answers for you. It revolves around how you position yourself within the organization. It means trying to "own" the entire job of written communication, whether that means doing the strategy, overseeing anything being produced, or doing the actual writing yourself.I'll cover more on how I approach the creation of a digital strategy (and how that's involved) but I also touched on it in this recording to give you a better sense of where you might fit into the big picture.Yours,—k

In response to my last post on how to sell advisory retainers, Michelle asked:How do you price the extra implementation work?  I get into trouble [because I] end up doing a lot of the work and in the long run the advising and strategy are where I make my most money. I think it's harder with Brand than simply Marketing alone.  I usually do a brand and marketing audit and then build in workshops for brand dev and move into the cmo role from there.  It usually leaves me feeling confused about which to focus on first or together. Thoughts about that?Here's my response.

Here's a response to a question from a new member of the group about how to research and choose a niche.She's got a Fractional CMO positioning and not getting enough traction. Chances are, I told her, it's because it doesn't speak to a specific enough market vertical. So, she's asked a few questions about how to find, research, and select a niche (and some stuff about SEO work she's currently doing, which is relevant).Yours,—k

Ever since I started specializing in a market vertical (coworking) I've been able to really start systemizing and productizing my work. It's had a massive impact, both for me and my clients.Not only does it allow me to be more efficient, I also get to work with more clients and produce a consistent result for them time after time. Everything from how I package, sell, onboard, and run my client engagements is systemized using a combination of email templates, documents, a Basecamp project, and more. Learn more about how it all works and why you should consider specializing so you can do the same.Yours,—k

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I've never hard to rely on outreach to get clients. But I do spend a lot of time creating content, so that could be why.Although, sometimes it can be necessary—especially when you're just getting started. But you don't want to rely on it. Here are some thoughts on how to use outreach to get new clients (if that's what you need to do).Cheers!—k